Alpha Phi Alpha’s Dr. William Warrick Cardozo Was a Pioneer of Sickle Cell Anemia Research

Did you know that one of the first physicians to conduct major research on sickle cell anemia was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.? His name was Dr. William Warrick Cardozo, and his work helped the world understand a disease that had long devastated Black families.

William Warrick Cardozo was born on April 6, 1905, in Washington, D.C. He attended the Hampton Institute, the historically Black institution in Virginia, before earning both his bachelor’s degree and his medical degree from Ohio State University, where he graduated near the top of his class. He was a devoted member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and in 1930, while still a student at Ohio State, he was elected the fraternity’s western vice president, remaining a proud brother throughout his life.

Cardozo made his greatest mark in medicine. In 1937, during a pediatrics fellowship in Chicago, he published a landmark study titled “Immunologic Studies in Sickle Cell Anemia,” one of the earliest major investigations into the disease. His research established that sickle cell anemia occurred almost exclusively among people of African descent and that it was inherited, following the laws of genetics, a foundational discovery that shaped how the illness was understood and treated for generations. Fittingly, Alpha Phi Alpha helped provide the financial support for the fellowship research that produced this groundbreaking study.

Cardozo devoted the rest of his career to caring for children and training future doctors. He returned to Washington, D.C., where he opened a private practice and joined the faculty of Howard University College of Medicine and Freedmen’s Hospital, eventually becoming a clinical associate professor of pediatrics. For more than two decades, he also served as a medical inspector for the District of Columbia’s schools, looking after the health of the city’s children.

Dr. William Warrick Cardozo died on August 11, 1962. From the Hampton Institute to the frontiers of medical research, Alpha Phi Alpha’s Dr. William Warrick Cardozo used his brilliance to advance the science of sickle cell anemia and to care for his community.